Day 8 Portland to San Francisco (24 July)

(Written at Mac& Cathy’s in Camarillo 27 July)

We greeted Dan before he left for work in the morning, and shortly after that joined Ellen for a wonderful breakfast. Her soda bread and egg quiche was delicious. As we were running around packing and getting ready, Ellen packed us a special pick-nick bag with lots of goodies that kept us going all the way to San Francisco! Ellen also gave us a stone from her garden, and we were all a bit teary when we said goodbye.

Sarie (the GPS) had her wits about her this morning and she managed to get us out of Portland on our way south in no time. Along the way Cecilia an Rene felt board with the monotonous scenery, and Jansie suddenly remembered that this was the day we were supposed to visit Cape Mendocino, the westernmost tip of the lower 48 states of the US. We discussed the matter with Sarie and she managed to put us on route 199 that took us through awe inspiring mountains, valleys and giant redwood forests.

We soon realized that our time budget was unrealistic! We did not have a map apart from Sarie, and misjudged how long it would take us to make this detour. But it was all worth it because we discovered a piece of heaven on earth. When we reached the “end of the earth” the mist had come in from the sea and the route we took brought us up a hill above the mist. We stood there praying and proclaiming God’s greatness as we watched the sunset over the sea of clouds before us. Rene blew the shofar and to our surprise and delight the cows grazing nearby came running to witness. For a moment in time we looked into the eyes of creation and saw the confirmation of the longing for the return of the King.

From there we still had 5 hours drive to San Francisco and it was a great relief to see the Golden Gate bridge at 2:30am! Hamish, Jansie’s cousin who was hosting us that night, had to put us up in his own room, and he went to sleep at a friend’s house. We found the key in the fire-extinguisher’s box by the front door and collapsed on his bed only to wake up 3 and a half hours later to continue with our journey!